Why did the "Terter caser" end up in the Council of Europe?

Baku/06.29.21/Turan: Human rights activist and co-founder of the "Line of Defense", Rufat Safarov discussed on the air of the “Difficult Question" program of Turan News Agency the reasons for initiating the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to investigate the fact of mass torture in the so-called "Terter case".

According to a human rights activist, the UN (Committee against Torture), PACE is concerned about the growing number of reports of torture and ill-treatment in Azerbaijan. The document (No. 1551) published on June 25 on the organization's website says that “From May 1 to May 17, 2017, more than 1000 military personnel and civilians from the front-line regions of Azerbaijan were detained on suspicion of espionage and high treason. Over 200 criminal cases were initiated against them. Many of them were tortured and ill-treated, resulting in the death of eleven people. Based on testimony obtained under torture, 25 people were convicted of high treason and sentenced to terms ranging from seven to 20 years in prison.

Subsequently, five of the 11 people who died under torture were acquitted posthumously. The Azerbaijani authorities recognized only 102 out of 135 victims of alleged torture and ill-treatment. However, no one received compensation for the damage.

Safarov believes that the "Terter case" was brought up for discussion by PACE for two reasons. First, in recent months, the Azerbaijani society has begun to mobilize around this cause.

“We are witnessing the growth of organization and the revitalization of society. Against this background, a kind of coordination has emerged between the local and international community. The development of such a political, legal document by PACE suggests that a certain mobilization of society is taking place in Azerbaijan,” he said.

Secondly, the human rights activist believes, the "terrorist case" began and passed under the direct political, military and legal control of the government.

“There can be no doubt about that. Enough time has passed to identify the organizers and perpetrators of this crime. However, the government limited itself to looking for "scapegoats" among the lower echelon officials. In a word, this case has not been fully solved. The organizers of this crime are high-ranking representatives of the military-political leadership and law enforcement agencies. All this could not escape the attention of international organizations,” Safarov says.

According to the human rights activist, if the public pressure does not increase and does not increase, one should not count on a fair investigation of this case. The

names of the persons who organized the total initiation of criminal cases against the military personnel, the use of torture against them, the motivation for their actions will remain undisclosed since there is no independent court in Azerbaijan.